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North Dakota pipeline death ruled accidental

GRAND FORKS -- A man's death in a Nov. 24 gravel truck accident at the Enbridge Pipeline site north of Crookston was ruled accidental after an autopsy, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said Monday.

Douglas Peck, 54, rural Crookston, was pronounced dead at the scene after a trailer full of gravel from Bertils Gravel backed over him. A final autopsy report from the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul ruled the death accidental and stated Peck died from multiple traumatic injuries after the accident.

The sheriff's office said it now has closed the investigation, and no criminal charges will be filed.

Authorities said a witness reported seeing Peck, a driver for Bertils, fall or trip into the path of the backing truck and trailer. John Bertils, who was driving the truck, did not see Peck according to a sheriff's investigator.

Bertils is a subcontractor with Gowan Construction of Oslo, Minn., working to prepare the pumping station site north of Crookston for an expansion by Enbridge of the pipeline's pumping capacity.